Landry is a 3

[Tetsujin]

SAR did his first couple of years -- and I thought they were his best years. But he got older and slower and never did have any of those other SF skills -- passing, ball handling etc.

I think being the go-to-guy for the consistently worst team in the NBA did him in. The pressure of being guy numer uno really seemed to get to him as after the first several years of failure, he never was the same.

But yes, Landry does kind of remind me of Reef.

 

[Bricklayer]

I think being the go-to-guy for the consistently worst team in the NBA did him in. The pressure of being guy numer uno really seemed to get to him as after the first several years of failure, he never was the same.

But yes, Landry does kind of remind me of Reef.

Which isn't a good thing, since I considered Reef largely a losing basketball player.

The thing that saves Landry for me is his attitude -- he's got toughness and a team first ethic and those things are big intangibles. But as a rule I consider his breed problematic. Can't do big man things, can't play on the perimeter. SAR was a career loser, West is overrated. They just aren't useful at the highest levels...unless you get guys to cover for their inadequacies, or you put then in a bench role where coming in firing is the goal.

 

[Kingstime]

Why does everyone want to compare every short PF to Barkley or Rodman? Those are once in a lifetime guys. It's like comparing every 6'5 shooting guard to Jordan.

Landry is who he is. A nice scoring, low rebounding, above average post player who will never be able to overcome his height the way Barkley did. Landry is above average for the rest of the 6'7 PF's out there but below average when compared to the taller ones. Some guys can rebound despite their height and some guys just cant. There's a reason why 99.9% of players can't be Rodman, Barkley and Kidd on the boards. Just be glad he doesn't rebound like Hawes (height to reb/gm speaking).

Uhh I never compared Carl to Barkley, I figured your referring to my post as Im the only that even mentioned Barkley in this 3 v 4 debate for Landrys game. I personally don't see Landrys lack of rebounding as a deficiency because he's one of the hardest working guys in the league when he is in the game.

I just don't see why the fact that he has trouble rebounding and defending the longer 4's should be a problem, also technically Jefferson is a 5 Landry shouldn't be guarding him anyways. I think Landry is a guy you just have to have out there, just like many of us wish Brockman would have an ounce of legit offensive game, we have that in spades with Landry.

 

[LPKingsFan]

Good analogy. He's always reminded me of west.

Same here.

Now, West seems to have done ok next to Okafor. Maybe we reconsider our purported opposition to taking on Okafor and his immense contract?

 

[Superman]

Same here.

Now, West seems to have done ok next to Okafor. Maybe we reconsider our purported opposition to taking on Okafor and his immense contract?

We don't have Kevin Martin's immense contract to trade for him anymore. And I still don't think Okafor is the kind of guy that would make a considerable difference for our team.

 

[LPKingsFan]

We don't have Kevin Martin's immense contract to trade for him anymore. And I still don't think Okafor is the kind of guy that would make a considerable difference for our team.

As far as I recall, it was Kenny Thomas for Okafor. We don't have Kenny's expiring to offer any more, but we do have pure cap space. And I'd wholly disagree that Okafor wouldn't help this team--it's just a question of whether he'd help more than anyone else we could acquire with that cap space.

 

[Chupacabra]

We don't have Kevin Martin's immense contract to trade for him anymore. And I still don't think Okafor is the kind of guy that would make a considerable difference for our team.

WHAT?! Youre saying that you dont think a bigman that blocks shots and rebounds can make a significant difference on a team that lacks bigmen that block shots and rebound? Try to explain this please.

 

[Bricklayer]

WHAT?! Youre saying that you dont think a bigman that blocks shots and rebounds can make a significant difference on a team that lacks bigmen that block shots and rebound? Try to explain this please.

I think there has always been some question how much of an impact player Okafor really is. He puts up all the right numbers, but his teams never seem any better for it, and when you watch him play its just..forgettable. There's something lacking there. That said there are a LOT of somethings lacking in our frontcourt, and Okafor would definitely bring something to the table.

 

[Kingster]

Its kind of similar to the SAR situation in a lot of ways -- do you define him by what he HAS, or what he DOESN'T have. Now if you are defining Landry by what he doesn't do, well then he doesn't board, he doesn't block shots...hey, maybe he's a SF. But the fact is he really wouldn't excel at that spot because he doesn't actually have any SF skills besides the ability to hit midrange jumpers. Not a SF ballhandling wise, bad passer even for a PF, range isn't out to three, nor would I want it to be. He's really more a flawed PF than a SF, although he did play SF in certian matchups in Houston.

He's potent enough offensively that as a bench PF he could give you a real offensive kick in the pants off the bench boost -- what he was doing in Houston. His numbers are slightly up in Sacto -- 18.0pts 6.6reb compared to 16.1pts 5.5reb in Houston -- but its taking him more than 10 extra minutes to get those extra 1.9pts and 1.1reb. Basically he was almsot as productive in 27.2min in Houston as he has been in 37.4min here. Its not his best position that is really in question, but rather his best role given his relatively one dimensional, but very punchy game. PF next to Dwight Howard? Sure. PF off the bench to give offensive spark? Sure. Starting PF next to young bigs with all kinds of defensive and rebounding issues? Not so much.

I can agree with that.

Looking toward the future, this is the way that I see this team:

Starters:

G - Tyreke
G - ?
SF - ?
PF - ?
C - ?

Bench:

G - Beno
G - Garcia
PF - Landry
SF - ?
C - ?

The bench looks pretty darn good, regardless of who you put in there at the SF and C positions. But for the starting team, except for Tyreke, there is no certainty at any of the other positions. The Kings have a long ways to go.

 

[DoDiGaG0]

Landry is a 4 for sure and he is best suited coming off the bench proving toughness/energy and frustrating offenses

he did so well in houston because nobody really concentrated on him(especially when Yao was healthy) and he just came in and disrupted things, he was the true "X" factor...when hes the #2 guy and the guys a lot of attention/planning from other teams..he isn't as effective...

he is a great player, incredible fit, and I would love to have him here for the long term...just in a different role.

 

[sook]

To anybody bitching about landry's rebounding,


HE USED TO BE THE BEST REBOUNDER ON THE ROCKETS HIS ROOKIE YR.


That is not an overstatement, he was a completely diff player, the rockets worked with him and helped him develop a lethal jumper and they turned him more into that type of player.

Look for videos of his rookie year, Landry is seen towering over everybody and dunking on them with a crap load of rebounds. he doesn't do it anymore b.c his game has changed, but he can if he works at it again.

 

[Bricklayer]

To anybody bitching about landry's rebounding,


HE USED TO BE THE BEST REBOUNDER ON THE ROCKETS HIS ROOKIE YR.


That is not an overstatement, he was a completely diff player, the rockets worked with him and helped him develop a lethal jumper and they turned him more into that type of player.

Look for videos of his rookie year, Landry is seen towering over everybody and dunking on them with a crap load of rebounds. he doesn't do it anymore b.c his game has changed, but he can if he works at it again.

Its an interesting observation because statistically he WAS much better his rookie season (4.9rebs in 16.9min = very respectable). But I think a couple of things can be pointed to there:

1) in his rookie season, due to his lack of size they were trying him a lot at SF, where obviously he would have a prohibititve advantage

2) his real potency was on the offensive glass -- he wasn't much better on the defensive boards, which are not as sexy as o-rebs but considerably more important to a team to finish off defensive plays

3) the relative fall off in his offensive rebounding (he's still better there than on defense) might be because he shoots more jumpshots. Its possible. Or it also might be because he's not boarding over SFs anymore. Or maybe its because he is playing far more minutes and can't bring the same manic energy. Or maybe its because not only is he going against PFs, but now starting PFs and Cs often approaching 7'0".

In any case, even at his best, and that best wa a 42 game stint averaging 17min per as a rookie, you basically had a guy who was good at crashing the offensive boards to get himself extra interior shots. Be a nice trick to have (and again he's still pretty good at that), but never, not even during his rookie season, did he ever show the ability to ovecome the size issues and control the glass defenisvely.

 

[bajaden]

Its an interesting observation because statistically he WAS much better his rookie season (4.9rebs in 16.9min = very respectable). But I think a couple of things can be pointed to there:

1) in his rookie season, due to his lack of size they were trying him a lot at SF, where obviously he would have a prohibititve advantage

2) his real potency was on the offensive glass -- he wasn't much better on the defensive boards, which are not as sexy as o-rebs but considerably more important to a team to finish off defensive plays

3) the relative fall off in his offensive rebounding (he's still better there than on defense) might be because he shoots more jumpshots. Its possible. Or it also might be because he's not boarding over SFs anymore. Or maybe its because he is playing far more minutes and can't bring the same manic energy. Or maybe its because not only is he going against PFs, but now starting PFs and Cs often approaching 7'0".

In any case, even at his best, and that best wa a 42 game stint averaging 17min per as a rookie, you basically had a guy who was good at crashing the offensive boards to get himself extra interior shots. Be a nice trick to have (and again he's still pretty good at that), but never, not even during his rookie season, did he ever show the ability to ovecome the size issues and control the glass defenisvely.

Yeah, I agree. There will nights here and there where the ball will bounce his way and he'll come down with 10 or 11 boards. But the truth is that were talking about a guy whose not quite 6'9" in shoes. Who doesn't have particularly long wingspan, and only has average hops. All in all, he's doing about as good as one could expect.

I would like to see what his rebounding stats are when he's on the floor with Thompson or Udoka as compared to Hawes or Greene. Thompson and Udoka are both very good at blocking out, which doesn't always benefit them, but does at times benefit other players on the team.

 

[Prince_XY]

I read here that Landry used to be the best rebounder on the Rockets during his rookie year followed by a next post stating he was tried a lot as a small forward during the same year.

Hmmm.

A lot of people says Evans is a SG, but we've used him as a PG and we're getting some pretty good results. Actually, we've seen him switching from 1 to 2 and vise versa in every game and at both ends of the floor, and our back court seemed to work just fine.

Maybe we could do the same to our front court?

Why can't we use Landry as a 4 in offense and switch him to 3 in defense so he doesn't have to guard those "big" and legit power forwards? I believe the OP is right that Landry could be quick enough and willing enough to learn how to guard most 3s in the NBA.

Maybe Thompson and Greene can guard the other team's 4 in defense. Unconventional, but I think it is the best thing to do with this bunch of atypical players.